Canada will get first glimpse of gig economic system in Statistics Canada knowledge

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Males and landed immigrants make up nearly all of supply and rideshare drivers whereas girls signify most of content material creators in Canada, new knowledge on the gig economic system revealed.

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Males (73 per cent) and landed immigrants (55 per cent) between the ages of 16 and 69 represented a lot of the meals supply and rideshare contractors in December, Statistics Canada reported on Jan. 6 within the Labour Power Survey. Ladies (58.4 per cent) represented the general public who created content material for cash, akin to movies, blogs or podcasts, on a digital platform or app.

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Friday was the primary time Statistics Canada launched knowledge on gig work — which it characterizes as “short-term duties, tasks, or jobs, with no assurance of regular employment” — signalling its rising position within the economic system.

Marwa Abdou, senior analysis director on the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, says the gig economic system has been bolstered by shifting attitudes to work and a decent labour market.

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Many companies have continued to permit staff to work at home for the reason that onset of the pandemic, encouraging employees to worth flexibility, she mentioned. Companies which can be struggling to rent in a decent labour market can reap the benefits of unbiased contractors.

“You’re seeing extra folks (turning) to gig jobs so as to improve their flexibility and reap the benefits of that,” Abdou mentioned. “It additionally helps (companies) ease or alleviate a few of the prices that they’d in any other case have incurred when it comes to hiring folks.”

Low obstacles to entry might appeal to Canadian newcomers to jobs driving for such firms as DoorDash Inc. and Uber Applied sciences Inc., Abdou mentioned. Usually, an individual can merely signal as much as be a driver and undergo a fast vetting course of versus the weeks or months it will possibly take to get employed on for a non-gig place. When immigrants first land in Canada, discovering a job of their area of examine might be troublesome attributable to biases, akin to employers refusing to acknowledge international credentials, she mentioned.

Friday’s job figures confirmed the unemployment price hit 5 per cent in December, one of many lowest on file. For companies, gig employees may help ease the pressure of labour shortages.

“As small enterprise house owners proceed to cope with an evolving catalogue of inauspicious selections on this economic system (excessive inflation, provide shortages and a decent job market), the gig economic system permits them to chop working prices by merely altering how and the place they will supply expertise,” Abdou mentioned in an e mail.

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